


familiarity

by burnsides



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Autistic Character, Baking, Gen, Happy Ending, no angst this time folks!!, past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 05:34:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11097969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burnsides/pseuds/burnsides
Summary: He saw Magnus leaning on the cart just outside the bar, dirt coating his boots, gnawing his knuckles raw. He remembered thinking about what a dipshit he looked like, standing out there all alone, and things clip into place and he's leaning over to whisper to his sister that this beefcake really is something, huh, and she snickers and clicks her tongue. They're all the same, you know? Helping everybody else until you help them, suddenly they're either kicking your ass or trying to marry you.Both times, Magnus had run up to him as soon as he saw him, smile on his face. Younger then, and younger then, again, but each time eager. Always so eager.





	familiarity

**Author's Note:**

> one of my favorite friendships to explore. i love them to bits  
> again, if i write anything wrong, feel free to tell me!

Taako lays the cooking sheet down flat on the table in front of him, smoothing it with his fingers. He carefully, carefully, presses smooth balls of batter onto it, making sure not to crinkle the aluminum too much or squish the batter. 

"Jesus, this is taking forever," moans Magnus. 

"Listen, do you want these cookies to come out good or not? You're the one that requested them, my man, 's not my fault."

Sunlight was coming through the window, soft against wooden panes and worn tables. Everything in the kitchen was handmade, practically - from the stool for Angus that laid shoved against the door a ways away, to Taako's apron held delicately on his frame, to the worn wooden floor, soft under their bare feet. Magnus had insisted, of course. _Swear to God, if you or anybody else hires another carpenter to do this shit to this house, I'll body slam you directly into hell._

"But you can use _magic,_ " he whined, pressing his scruffy face against his scruffy hand. Magnus, years older than when he had first met him (a century or so ago), still looks like a young man. Older now, older by eons, it seemed. Taako remembers, faintly, how he looked when he had seen him, just about three years ago. He had been exhausted. Easy trip, easy mission, last job he ever needed to take. Felt good on his tongue. He saw Magnus leaning on the cart just outside the bar, dirt coating his boots, gnawing his knuckles raw. He remembered thinking about what a dipshit he looked like, standing out there all alone, and things clip into place and he's leaning over to whisper to his sister that this beefcake really is something, huh, and she snickers and clicks her tongue. They're all the same, you know? Helping everybody else until you help them, suddenly they're either kicking your ass or trying to marry you. 

Both times, Magnus had run up to him as soon as he saw him, smile on his face. Younger then, and younger then, again, but each time eager. Always so eager.

"I'm not burning spell slots on cookies, asshat." Taako takes the last bit of cookie dough out of the metal bowl, scraping the edges (does it fast, he and Magnus both hate the goddamn metal on metal sound with a passion), gets ready to press it back down onto the baking sheet until Magnus grabs the spoon out of his hand and shoves it in his mouth, making him quack indignantly. 

" _Yo,_ what the _fuck?_ Give that back, Jesus Christ," he says, and reaches over to snatch it from the bigger man, but he ducks from his reach. Goddamn Carey. Goddamn lizard woman.

Magnus laughs, spoon clicking against his teeth. "I'm a huge target, man, you can't even try to get me?"

"You're going to knock over all the kitchen shit if you're not careful." Another reach, another dodge. "I'm making you pay for new ones if you break it."

"I can just carve some more, what are you talking about?"

"No can do! You don't get the pleasure of doing it yourself. Your punishment for being a dick is that you have to look the inferior kitchen ware in the face and slap it down in our lovely, lovely home." Taako summons Mage Hand and snatches the spoon from his mouth, holding it victoriously. 

"Fuck you," says Magnus, mouth muddled with cookie dough.

"Fuck you," replies Taako, flinging the spoon into the sink gallantly. It clatters around, loud, stinging his sensitive ears just a bit, and sees Magnus jerk forward. Tugged my puppet strings, shoulders flinging themselves up, fingers twitching. Not quite used to doing the protecting for himself, haven't for a long time, the feeling making his bones creak with unfamiliarity and it hurts, and it hurts.

He moves forward and brushes his fingers against Magnus's knuckles, the feeling reminiscent of softer ones brushing against his own, all of space humming outside their window as she tells him where they are, who they are, you and me, man, we're in this together. He doesn't look at Magnus, knows he doesn't want his pity. He just says, "Wanna see if we can nuke this bitch and speed bake these cookies?"

"Uhhh, not quite sure that'd be the best course of action," Magnus laughs, scratching at his sideburns. Shifting back into his position on the counter, kicking his legs.

Taako slips the tray into the oven, bumping it closed with his hands and leaning against the counter behind it. The air is warm, now, soft and light with the midday sky. Angus won't be back from school yet for another hour or two, Merle's out with his kids, and, for once, it's just him and Magnus. He appreciates the fighter's comfort in the silence, even now, after everything. It's a striking change from bumbling need to keep the talk going, awkward and stumbling forward. Always talking like someone had taught him a dance using the wrong steps. It wasn't until Taako told him he didn't need to do that shit that he calmed down. At the time, he had been annoyed, clanging around kitchen wear and sniping at Lup that the man couldn't take a hint unless you punched him in the face with it, but, now. Now, with flour coating his dark hair and face, peppering his mouth, he can only feel a distant, old sense of adoration. Magnus, forever the pleaser, the little brother. 

"Is Kravitz coming over?" Magnus says. His voice is quieter than usual, back slumped. Guard down, and Taako supposes he's doing the same. Pressing against the table, hair a frizz around his face and covering his hands. The ancient twitch is still there, holding him by the elbow, trying to guide him kicking and screaming from the sense of safety he has right now, but he'll let it be, fight it just this once, maybe.

"Nah, not today," Taako replies.

"You really like him." It's a statement, not a question. 

Taako raises his eyebrows. "You think so?"

Magnus nods. "You're interested in him. Like - it's like - you keep asking him questions, and you do that laugh you do when you get surprised a lot."

"What's that sound like," Taako asks, and Magnus clears his throat and makes a higher pitched bark of a noise, and it makes him snort, a little.

"Do I really sound like that?"

"You keep him around. 'S not like some of the other guys. You're not - you're not d - you're not reeling him in. He's reeling _you_ in, he's keeping _you_ interested. You wear all your nicest outfits -"

"It's been about a thousand and a half dates, my dude," Taako snips. Cuts through his sentence quickly. "Doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

Magnus goes quiet. Squares his shoulders, just a little. 

Taako feels something building in his throat, constricting him. It burns his eyes. "Hey," he forces out, just barely. "I'm - I'm sorry. That was mean."

"It's okay."

"It's not." The words feel like lava, twisting out of a place inside him that he's fighting violently to keep. Tries to keep it in a place where all the other parts of him can't reach, where his buried memories and the poison of habits new and old can't get to. Keeps it in the palm of Kravitz's hand, Angus's curly hair when he ruffles it, the knuckles of Magnus' no-longer bloodies hands.

Magnus, to his surprise, laughs. "I've been getting lessons from Ango, can you tell?"

"You think you're getting it better?"

"I think so. You're just harder to understand than literally everyone else I know."

Taako laughs at this, too. Folds himself up just a little bit. 

"You know, I haven't baked in forever," he muses. "Not for other people, at least."

"You baked at the fucking - you baked those elder flour macaroons! That Candlenights night at the B.O.B!"

"Oh, whatever, shut up. I mean, like, cookies and shit with chocolate or whatever. Not since Sizzle It Up."

"Why's that?"

Taako shrugs. "My partner hated it."

There's a beat of silence, then. Taako doesn't say his name, not anymore, but it hangs in the air nonetheless. Always over his shoulder.

"Motherfucker," says Magnus, easily. Taako lets out a bark of a laugh.

"Asshole," Taako responds.

"Piece of shit."

"Evillest bastard this side of the planet."

"You want me to kill him for you?"

Taako would have laughed if he hadn't sounded so nonchalant, so honest about it. He spins a spoon between his pointer and thumb finger, idly, scars on his face darting down his nose and eyebrows.

"Nah. I think I can handle it."

"I know you can," Magnus replies. The statement is so obvious, so raw in his mouth, like a smack in the face. Every moment like this is always tinged with deja vu, a sense of knowing you've _done_ this before, you've said this before, somewhere, sometime, someone has said those words to you and they have felt just like they do now, like cold ice dripping down your back. But it doesn't hurt, not like he thought it would. Taako could bury himself in this feeling, wants to make a summer home and invest in time shares with his boyfriend in this feeling. It's fondness coming to the brim, sea air hitting him in the face, warm like a fire, like a sun, right under Taako's heart.

The air is thick with the smell of melting chocolate, suddenly, it seems, and he jumps off the counter and presses his face to look at the oven. He's beaming, fogging up the glass with his excited breath.

"Back away from those broiling boys, I gotta see if they're ready."

"Are they ready?" asks Magnus, voice absolutely giddy.

"I said back _off,_ , you big brick shithouse, lemme _check, _" bites Taako with no real venom as he shoves the bigger man away from the oven. He casts a lazy cooling spell over his hands (Magnus giggles a little), snatching the tray and laying it out in front of them. Magnus immediately snatches two off the tray and shoves them in his mouth, and Taako shoves against him, yelling about how he'll burn his damn taste buds with that shit. All he does is fill the room with laughter, even with the hot tears coming down his face as he fans his mouth, joyous and overflowing.__


End file.
